The present invention relates particularly to a housing for a flexible coupling. Such a housing, for accommodating a gear shift lever in automobiles, conventionally consists of two parts of sheet metal. Housings of sheet metal have also been proposed for this application. Such a housing is usually installed at the chassis floor level, and serves to support the gear shift lever and its downward extension from the shaft. A difficulty, which has been encountered in manufacturing such a gear-shift lever housing, is due to the fact that in most cases very large deviations of the gear-shift lever are required. This in turn requires that a wide opening be formed in the housing, which is in conflict with the requirement for accommodating a large force in an axial direction. Since in addition it is necessary to insert a ball into the housing, a two-part housing is therefore required.
It is an object of the present invention to devise a simple housing of synthetic plastic material, into which a ball may easily be inserted without there occurring any play between the ball and the housing. The term "simple housing" is understood to include a housing which can be fabricated as a two-part injection molding. If the housing is, for example, formed with slits in a longitudinal direction for the installation of a ball end pin, and is formed with a transverse bore for receiving a screw or the like for attaching the housing to the chassis, then such a housing requires very complicated and multiply split molds, as well as expensive injection molding machines. Since housings for the gear-shift lever, according to the present invention, are, however, primarily used for trucks and buses, and are thus manufactured in relatively small quantities, the cost of the mold can therefore appreciably influence the price of the final product.